Honoring the fallen and the brave

"If nobody goes, then somebody
has to go." That, according to his editors at APF News, was the
personal motto of fallen Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who
until his tragic death had reported from conflict zones around the
world. That journalistic drive put Nagai in the line of fire during Burma's
2007 Saffron Revolution, when he was shot and killed by a soldier while
filming a government crackdown on street demonstrations in the old
capital of Rangoon.

And
it's a spirit that will now be annually memorialized through the new
Kenji Nagai Award, which was bestowed for the first time to imprisoned
Burmese journalist Eine Khine Oo during the sixth annual Burma Media
Association (BMA) conference held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on February 21.

The
newly launched press freedom award is co-sponsored by the Tokyo-based
APF News and BMA. Each year it will recognize a Burmese journalist who
has been harassed, arrested or killed for reporting in the country's
highly restricted media environment, BMA's vice president Zin Linn,
told CPJ.

A
video montage prepared by APF to inaugurate the award showed clips of
Nagai's frontline reporting from the occupied Palestinian territory, Iraq, and Burma, as well as posthumous images of his desk in Tokyo
overflowing with flowers of condolence. A rock-and-roll song Nagai
composed, entitled "See you," was played as part of the video's score.

One
of his editors noted that despite repeated requests Burmese authorities
have failed to return the camera Nagai was holding when he died.

This year's Kenji Nagai Award recipient, Eine Khine Oo, a 25-year-old reporter with EcovisionJournal,
was arrested on June 10, 2008, while photographing a demonstration of
Cyclone Nargis victims held outside the United Nations Development
Program office in Rangoon's TamweTownship.

Burma's
military regime came under heavy international press criticism for its
initial slow and some alleged corrupt response to the natural disaster,
which according to United Nations estimates killed more than 84,000
people. Inside the country, press coverage was heavily censored and
prominently featured television images of military officials
distributing aid to victims.

Eine
Khine Oo's coverage of protests by neglected victims threatened to
expose that varnished account and after her arrest military officials
accused her of taking photographs with the intent to distribute to
media groups based outside the country. One measure of her journalistic
dedication, said Zin Linn, was that her clothes were soaked with rain
at the time of her arrest.

She
was detained without charge for more than five months before a Burmese court
ruled in a closed-door trial last November that she violated section
505/B of the penal code, which covers charges of incitement. She has
since been held incommunicado. Radio Free Asia reporter Ma Su Mon Aye accepted the award, which includes a $1,000 grant, on Eine Khine Oo's behalf.

"Her
arrest was unjust because she was just doing her job," said Ma Su Mon
Aye. "We ask the military to release her as soon as possible."
According to CPJ research, Burma
is the third worst jailer of journalists in the world, with at least 14
reporters, including Eine Khine Oo, behind bars as of December 1 last
year.

(Reporting from Chiang Mai, Thailand)

CPJ Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn W. Crispin is based in Bangkok, Thailand, where he has worked as a journalist and editor for more than 15 years. He has led CPJ missions throughout the region and is the author of several CPJ special reports.

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